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Art by LifeisDANK.
In CAP, or the Create-A-Pokémon Project, the community bands together to create new Pokémon from scratch via a democratic system of polls. Everyone who wishes to contribute can have a say in and potentially an impact on the end design of the Pokémon.
Much like Game Freak, CAP may choose to update its Pokémon from time to time, whether that be by changing their abilities or by making additions to their available moves. During the most recent of these updates, it was decided that no stat changes would occur and that most of the created Pokémon, called CAPs, would instead receive moves via new TMs, tutors, and breeding that would've become available to them if they were real Pokémon. However, some CAPs required a major overhaul to become more in line with the CAP Project's overall goal for these updates: making all of the CAPs much more like real Generation VII Pokémon.
A hand full of CAPs required more significant changes in order for them to be brought in line with the given standard, whether that be through "nerfs" or through "buffs". These Pokémon were designated to have a Major Update, in which either extensive movepool or ability changes were made. The CAPs that underwent a Major Update were:
Click on a CAP to learn about its update process! | |||||
Aurumoth | Arghonaut | Tomohawk | Revenankh | Voodoom | Naviathan |
Prior to the updates, Aurumoth was an S-tier threat in the metagame. It made use of its Illusion ability to disguise itself before setting up with Quiver Dance, Dragon Dance, or Tail Glow. After setting up, Aurumoth would use its amazing coverage options to often secure a sweep.
This was deemed unhealthy for the meta, as any Pokémon that came in could be Aurumoth, and with no way of knowing whether or not it was outside of hazard damage, it became very difficult to play around: do you switch and give Aurumoth the free setup? Do you stay in guessing that it's Aurumoth only to be KOed by the actual Pokémon? This created a 50/50 scenario with every switch and potentially allowed Aurumoth to gain game winning boosts.
The overall aim of Aurumoth's update was to tone down its clearly over tuned strength in order to make it much more reasonable to deal with. This discussion led into removing Illusion from Aurumoth and instead replacing it with a flavor ability in order to be more consistent with other CAPs as well as removing the main cause that made Aurumoth overcentralizing.
As well as this, as with all the other updates, moves that were introduced after Aurumoth's creation had to be discussed and considered to be added to its movepool. Aurumoth's movepool was considered to already be more than sufficient, and it was decided that all additional moves would be flavor only and should have no competitive viability.
Whilst Illusion was a large part of Aurumoth's identity before the update, Aurumoth continues to be a solid threat in the meta, albeit much more manageable and much less centralizing; thus it fell from its perch at the top of S Rank in the viability rankings down to A/A-. Whilst its sets remain fairly reminiscent of what it ran before the update, a large portion of its strength now lies in its ability to run No Guard alongside higher-powered, low-accuracy moves such as Hydro Pump, Thunder, and Focus Blast.
The removal of Illusion has also prompted much more experimentation with Aurumoth, with many new sets appearing that make use of its vast movepool; one such example is a set utilizing Tail Glow + Weak Armor. Overall, the update seems to have achieved exactly what it set out to do in nerfing Aurumoth but still managing to keep it as a powerful threat in the meta.
Unlike Aurumoth, Arghonaut has struggled greatly throughout the last few generations, unable to really make a dent in the CAP meta and failing to be impactful enough to warrant its use on a team. Because of this, it was decided that Arghonaut should receive a fairly large update with a focus on buffing its shallow movepool and increasing its versatility and team utility.
Arghonaut was created with the concept of being able to check the most prominent threats within the DPP CAP meta, which included Blissey, Scizor, Heatran, Syclant, Revenankh, and Stratagem. The problem with this concept, however, is that it does not translate well from generation to generation, so as these Pokémon fell out of favor or better checks to them were introduced, our favorite pirate slowly became an extremely fringe pick and soon found itself towards the bottom ends of the viability rankings.
To add insult to injury, Arghonaut wasn't even the best Unaware Water-type to use in CAP, as Quagsire gave it serious competition, almost entirely due to its access to Scald. Scald meant that Quagsire at least could exert some pressure with the potential to burn, whereas Arghonaut was forced to be extremely passive due to its movepool restrictions, which led it to be all but redundant in the metagame.
Arghonaut's main role in the recent metagame has been as a strong Water check, but it offered very little utility when compared to other common Pokémon that fit this role in a team, such as Mollux and Ferrothorn. Utility options quickly became the topic of discussion for Arghonaut's update with options such as hazards, hazard removal, Scald, and Taunt being the focal points—it seemed that Arghonaut's best shot at being viable was as a bulky pivot with stallbreaking potential.
This became reality, as by the end of Arghonaut's update process, it had gained many tools to improve both its utility and offensive roles with access to new moves such as Scald, Spikes, Close Combat, and Circle Throw. The addition of Technician to its ability choices gave Argh somewhat of a viable option on an attacking focused set, including strong priority in Technician-boosted Aqua Jet. Due to these changes, Arghonaut has become a somewhat viable CAP with a specific niche role that allows it to now fill key positions on a team such as Water check and Spikes setter; however, it still lacks the qualities to be a consistent, top-tier Pokémon in the current meta.
From soon after its introduction to the CAP metagame, Tomohawk has been an S-rank threat and a stalwart of the metagame. It was strong in many ways, with an incredible support movepool backed up by Prankster, great bulk and defensive typing, and excellent power. Tomohawk could find a role on almost any team and was deemed too strong by the community. Updates came in with the idea of toning down its power without destroying what made it a fun, interesting CAP.
The main goal with Tomohawk was not to drastically weaken it but to bring it in line with the rest of the CAP meta's overall level of power. Discussion quickly started on some of its most visible elements: Prankster and Haze. Prankster made its support movepool even stronger, giving priority to many important moves such as Taunt and Roost. One of the biggest beneficiaries of the ability was Haze, which made Tomohawk a dead stop to setup sweepers, especially those that relied on one-time setup moves. However, Haze left Tomohawk vunerable to being KOed by the sweepers it stopped, such as Z-Fly Salamence and Aurumoth. Although both were identified as being very strong tools, the community came to the consensus that Prankster had become Tomo's identity and that Haze was a benefit to the metagame.
Once people realized what was important to keep for Tomohawk's identity, the update focused on moves that were both too strong and nonessential: Reflect and Earth Power. Reflect, although rarely run and a niche option, turned Tomohawk into a defensive behemoth that could barely be 3HKOed by Mega Metagross's STAB Zen Headbutt. Earth Power fit nearly every set that Tomohawk ran, allowing it to beat would-be checks and counters such as Plasmanta and Mollux and giving it great neutral coverage across the meta, even replacing its Fighting-type STAB move. The moves went to poll, and both were removed.
Move additions were next, and after debate over moves like Feather Dance and Circle Throw and a renewed argument for the removal of Haze, the competitive side of things was over with no new additions or removals. Consistency updates brought the bird Aqua Tail, Power-Up Punch, and Sky Attack, and the updates finished with a one-sided poll that decided not to allow Flying Press.
Tomohawk remains a powerful, versatile threat in the CAP metagame. Defensive and offensive sets alike still are powerful, with Tomohawk still having access to an arsenal of strong moves and the removals not hampering it greatly. However, it has become more manageable, with more checks and counters arising due to Earth Power's removal and its defensive prowess lessening with Reflect's absence.
Revenankh had been left behind as the generations shifted away from its inception in Gen 4. The introduction of Fairies in XY hurt it greatly, and their surge in ORAS's meta had left it decimated. Revenankh was crippled in the modern-day metagame by a number of weaknesses: it cracked under pressure from the ever-prevalent Fairy-, Flying-, and Psychic-types, relied on the weak Shadow Sneak or Shadow Punch for its Ghost-type STAB attack, struggled to get off any sort of move because of its low Speed that had only been exacerbated by a faster metagame, and lacked a way to take advantage of its ability, Shed Skin. Shed Skin was a great ability when Rev was first made, letting it set up with Bulk Up on passive, status-inflicting Pokémon. However, generational shifts created offensive threats that gave Revenankh far fewer chances to set up at all.
Updates aimed to repair the damage time had done to Revenankh and try to bring it back to its original role as a Bulk Up sweeper with great neutral coverage. Discussion started on giving Revenankh a new ability to give it life in a metagame so unkind to its statline. Arguments began over what direction the mummy was to go: should it be offensive, taking an ability like Sand Rush, Adaptability, or Tough Claws? Or should it go a defensive route, with Regenerator, Poison Heal, or Filter? Which let Revenankh fulfill its concept and purpose best? With just over forty-eight hours of ability discussion remaining, an ability that seemed to straddle the line between both directions emerged: Triage. Triage gave Revenankh priority healing in Moonlight as well as a strong attacking option in Drain Punch, solving issues on both sides of its weaknesses. The final ability poll came and went, Triage edged out Poison Heal and was added, and the community moved to movepool.
A better Ghost STAB attack was the next focus, and the debate was all about its strength. Shadow Bone gave Revenankh the strength it sorely needed, but was the chance to drop Defense too much? Shadow Claw was weaker in spades; did it have enough strength to be worth it? Phantom Force was strong but had a huge catch in being two turns long, but would the fears of Phantom Force-based Never-Ending Nightmare play out and overwhelm much of the meta? As the community argued its cases for each person's favored ghastly attack, other moves were discussed and decided against: Recover, Healing Wish, Swords Dance, and Gunk Shot all boosted Revenankh to too high of a power level. Shadow Bone was polled against Shadow Claw, and Shadow Claw won out, making it the first addition to Revenankh's movepool. Phantom Force was next on the chopping block, and it, in addition to Stone Edge, was not added. Amidst all of the debate on STAB moves and strong attacks, Will-O-Wisp was suggested and near unanimously favored, with its addition finishing Revenankh's update.
Revenankh has seen a surge of power since the updates, becoming a strong offensive option in the CAP meta. Priority Drain Punch has turned Bulk Up Revenankh into a powerful revenge killer that also has the ability to sweep in the later portion of the game. On top of this, Revenankh now has access to a much stronger Ghost STAB attack in Shadow Claw, which has amplified its power against the targets Drain Punch fails against. Revenankh still remains checked and countered by much of what it was before, such as the ever-popular Tomohawk and many bulky Fairies, but the update process has breathed new life into the long dead mummy.
Voodoom was widely considered one of the worst CAPs in the SM meta. Issues abounded for the poor voodoo doll: its attacking stats fell short of what could break bulky cores, and it was brutalized by the introduction of Fairy-types, as it had few moves to dent the prevalent Fairies of the SM meta and its 4x weakness to the type made it fall over to even the weakest of Fairy-type moves. Voodoom was the test for what updates could do: could the community bring the long-forgotten Pokémon back to prominence?
Updates began with two clear discussion points: what was to be made of Voodoom's concept, to partner with Togekiss; and what needed to happen to put Voodoom back into viability. The original concept was long obsolete and quickly discarded, and three distinct suggestions were put forth to push power into the doll: a boosting move, ideally Nasty Plot, a power-boosting Hidden Ability, and more movepool power and diversity. The power-boosting ability was the least favored option, as the community agreed on a flavorful option with Cursed Body winning a poll, and Nasty Plot was added.
Voodoom still lacked a way to hit Fairies effectively, bar Z-Psychic, so coverage move additions focused on how to better this matchup. Poison-type coverage in Sludge Bomb and Sludge Wave were found to be too strong, so the community aimed to hit common Fairies: Thunderbolt for the then-ultra common Tapu Fini as well as strong neutral coverage, and Flash Cannon to hit most other Fairies. Thunderbolt won its poll easily, Flash Cannon scraped through, and both were added to the movepool. Consistency updates brought Voodoom fully into generation seven, adding Smart Strike, Snarl, Power-Up Punch, and Hyper Voice.
Voodoom has become a more effective CAP thanks to these updates, but it's still a very niche option. Gaining Nasty Plot has given it new life, as it is now able to break bulky teams with +2 Dark Pulse, Focus Blast, and its choice of coverage: Psychic, with +2 Shattered Psyche blowing through checks like Tomohawk; Flash Cannon to break Fairies like Tapu Bulu and Clefable; and Thunderbolt to hit bulky Waters, including Arghonaut and Tapu Fini. Voodoom still has weaknesses; in this meta, it struggles to do well against offensive teams that carry faster Pokémon that brutalize the voodoo doll, and it lost a niche in Nasty Passing when Baton Pass was banned. All in all, CAP updates have helped Voodoom, but it remains a weak option in a strong metagame.
Unlike most other CAP Pokémon that ended up with a major update, Naviathan was introduced relatively recently, back in Gen 6. This indicated that it was developed for a meta that is closer to today's than any of the other Pokémon receiving major updates, causing new concerns in the update process. The reason Naviathan required this update so early in its life was due to the lack of power behind its Dragon Dance set. The concept behind Naviathan was that it should be a sweeper that could boost either its Attack or Special Attack and succeed with either set. What happened in reality was one set became the clear favorite; a Calm Mind stallbreaker set was primarily used in ORAS, making use of moves such as Scald, Taunt, and Slack Off to break through stall teams. This removed the ambiguity that Naviathan's concept revolved around, as the Dragon Dance set was almost strictly inferior so it did not need to be feared.
With the introduction of Gen 7, Naviathan fell even further behind the curve; with many Pokémon opting to run Electric and Fighting coverage as well as as a buff to Dugtrio making stall's matchup against Naviathan vastly more favored, it became a rarity in the meta.
In order to increase the power of the Dragon Dance set without it overtaking the Calm Mind set, the discussion turned to changing Naviathan's subpar ability Water Veil to something that would allow it to hit much harder than it currently could—the first suggestion that was favored was adding Guts, as it retained the same theme as Water Veil in ignoring burns but allowed Naviathan's physical attacks to hit much harder when run with a Flame Orb. Other abilities that were discussed included Tough Claws, Mold Breaker, and to some extent Steelworker, which were briefly discussed before Guts received a majority vote in the poll and Naviathan received its new ability.
In the same vein as the ability discussion, the movepool additions were also turned to adding more power to Naviathan's physical sweeper set. During its creation it was decided Naviathan would've been much too powerful if it was given access to Heavy Slam, and so this move was not included in its initial movepool. This move was slated to be repolled, as increasing Naviathan's power was the intention of this update; hence, the poll results reported the community favoring this addition, giving Naviathan a much-needed powerful STAB option.
Plenty of other coverage options were also discussed for the boat, from Smart Strike to Dragon Hammer, with a big focus on whether or not it should be allowed access to Liquidation and Earthquake or if that would tip it over the edge. In the end, it was determined that Naviathan would not get access to either of these moves and instead would receive Brutal Swing and Psychic Fangs as competitive move updates, along with the previously decided Heavy Slam.
The impact this update has had on Naviathan has been extremely apparent. The Dragon Dance set quickly became an imposing threat, as Naviathan's Guts-boosted attacks made it much harder for would-be checks to switch directly in. Naviathan still struggles with choosing coverage and making up for its lackluster initial strength, but overall it has improved as a Dragon Dance sweeper.
Some CAPs required minimal but impactful changes to them in order to bring them in line with the SM metagame. These changes range from something as dramatic as ability changes to something much more minor such as small competitive movepool changes.
Click on a CAP to learn about its update process! | ||
Malaconda | Plasmanta | Kitsunoh |
Before the updates, Malaconda was in a difficult spot because of how the metagame had shifted from its creation in Gen 5. It was built to be an anti-rain Pokémon, improving the poor matchup of the weaker weather, sun. Weather was no longer infinite, though, hurting the sun teams that gave Malaconda a powerful role. Its typing and low BST hurt it defensively, and the fast metagame had led to situations where Malaconda simply could not move before being chipped down and KOed. The community decided it deserved only a minor update as opposed to a major one, however, because the main limiting factor they identified with the snake was its typing, something updates could not change. Dark / Grass had gained a detrimental Fairy weakness, as well as a 4x weakness to Bug leaving it OHKOed or severely dented by even non-STAB U-turns. Malaconda's Fighting, Fire, Flying, and Ice weaknesses also were common in the metagame, giving it few chances to do much of anything.
As updates begun, massive debates came in turn over what ability Malaconda could receive to support it and improve it. Regenerator, Stamina, Sticky Hold, and Filter were all received with mixed reviews, but the one that encompassed Malaconda's prior role while improving its status, Drought, was the winner of the poll. Drought recalled Malaconda's initial concept and status in the meta it was created in, as well as giving it a strong niche in the current meta that could truly help the snake. Move additions improved both the new Drought set and its past Harvest sets, adding Spiky Shield, Ice Fang, and Solar Blade along with flavor moves.
After the updates, Malaconda's struggles have been eased but still exist. Its statline still creates matchup issues, but Drought has given it strength in its long-standing role as an anti-rain Pokémon while buffing its recovery and team support roles and options. Drought gives it a niche on sun teams, often as a second setter of sun in addition to Mega Charizard Y, and its ability to provide Rapid Spin support and spread paralysis with Glare offers great support for those teams.
Since its inception, Plasmanta struggled to make too much of an impact on the metagame, which was surprising for a Pokémon with its incredible offensive stats and typing and its terrific ability in Storm Drain, which allowed it to check common threats in the ORAS metagame such as Keldeo while giving it a Special Attack boost. What seemed to be the main thing holding Plasmanta back was competition with other standout Electric-type CAPs: Krilowatt and Cyclohm combined their advantages of superior bulk and coverage to dampen Plasmanta's success and viability. This, coupled with the fact that Plasmanta is 4x weak to Ground, one of the most common types in the tier, made Plasmanta very rarely worth picking over other Pokémon that accomplished similar things.
To remedy this weaknesses, the main point of discussion for Plasmanta was what moves it should be allowed to gain from this update. One of the initial main focuses was on Volt Switch. Plasmanta was originally disallowed access to Volt Switch during its creation process, as the idea was to use Plasmanta as a sack to bring in Gyarados or another bulky Dragon Dancer to get a free setup opportunity, not for it to pivot on its own. However, with Plasmanta having abandoned its original concept long ago, Volt Switch became the focus of the first stages of the update.
In the end it was deemed unnecessary to give Plasmanta the ability to pivot, and instead it was found enough to just allow it access to coverage moves to hit common Pokémon that plagued it previously, such as Cawmodore, Heatran, and the aforementioned Ground-types. This criteria lead to Aura Sphere becoming the only competitive move Plasmanta received, which hits all of its common checks at least neutrally and adds a great option for Plasmanta to make use of.
This, coupled with the addition of flavor moves such as Electric Terrain, Electroweb, and Magnet Rise, concluded Plasmanta's update, which overall increased its viability by a small margin. Aura Sphere may not be the strongest move it could've gotten to answer its checks, but it does the job well enough when coupled with other options such as Hidden Power Ice for Landorus, Garchomp, and Zygarde.
On paper, Kitsunoh looks to have excellent tools to be utilized as an offensive revenge killer; it has a good Speed stat at base 110, a great typing in Ghost / Steel, and access to a fairly competitive pool of offensive moves such as U-turn, Ice Punch, Meteor Mash, and its own signature move, Shadow Strike. Despite this, prior to the updates it was mostly seen as a fast Defogger with great pivoting ability thanks to U-turn, as despite all of its offensive capabilities, its lackluster Attack stat of only base 103 meant that it hit like a wet noodle.
In order to address these weaknesses, new ability options were discussed at the beginning of the update process—mostly those that would benefit Kitsunoh's pivot set such as Intimidate and Regenerator. It wasn't until sometime later in discussion that people started discussing possible offensive options such as Sheer Force, Tough Claws, and Iron Fist, and at this point, the idea of giving Kitsunoh an offensive ability gained traction.
The addition of Iron Fist to Kitsunoh's available abilities became the first change it received. This hugely impacted the viability of an offensive revenge killer Kitsunoh set, as not only could it now pack a substantial punch, it also gained access to Bullet Punch. This addition allows Kitsunoh to damage faster threats such as Syclant and Stratagem for super effective damage with a STAB- and Iron Fist-boosted priority hit.
Kitsunoh's previously used pivot set also found new additions during the update, as it was given access to Wish. With this, Kitsunoh can now be used as a fringe pick on stall, as it can utilize a Will-O-Wisp / Defog / Wish / Protect set and take advantage of the fact that it is one of the only Defoggers available to stall that resist Stealth Rock.
Overall, these changes have undoubtedly caused Kitsunoh's usage and viability to improve, as it is able to hurt a large portion of the metagame and now beat even the sturdiest of defensive checks, thanks to a combination of Iron Fist boosting Meteor Mash, coverage moves, and Shadow Strike's 50% chance to reduce its target's Defense by 1 stage. This has made Kitsunoh an interesting choice for offensive teams in the updated CAP meta.
These CAPs received very minor changes with little to no competitive influence, which served mainly to improve the consistency within the project and to add flavor to the CAP or add moves released since its creation. A few, however, received small changes that did have an impact on their place within the meta:
Click on a CAP to learn about its update process! | ||
Cyclohm | Krilowatt | Syclant |
Cyclohm was selected for a consistency update due to it already being a very strong CAP in the modern-day meta: it was a premier physically defensive tank with offensive uses and a wide movepool of both attacking and team support options. However, in addition to receiving solely flavor moves and the ability of Damp, it received the powerful option Volt Switch, as many Electric-types have since Generation 5. Volt Switch has improved Cyclohm even more, allowing it to pivot out of former hard stops such as Assault Vest Tangrowth and bring in powerful teammates.
Syclant has been a mainstay in the CAP metagame since it was released due to its sky-high Speed stat and more than servicable offenses. Its main selling point is its access to Tail Glow as well as its unique ability, Mountaineer, which allows it to come in on Stealth Rock unharmed. Due to it being an already more than capable threat in the meta, Syclant's only additions its movepool were flavor moves, except one...
Icicle Crash was an addition that may not seem too impactful on a primarily specially offensive sweeper; however, Syclant's Attack stat is comparable to its Special Attack, and its access to moves such as U-turn, Swords Dance, and Earthquake gives a physical set a surprising niche in the meta now that it has access to a fantastic physical Ice-type STAB attack. This allows it to lure in specially defensive walls and hit them for large amounts of damage out of nowhere.
Krilowatt was chosen for a consistency update due to its already strong position in the current metagame, being able to run a very powerful special attacking set due to Magic Guard + Life Orb, its good speed and bulk, and a very diverse movepool. However, Krilowatt was gifted several new moves that have improved it a great deal: it gained Volt Switch, letting it pivot around many tanks and revenge killers that would have switched in on it before, as well as a range of physical moves in Aqua Tail and Wild Charge, granting the physical attacking set strength it severely lacked beforehand.
Whilst there were many other CAPs that also received consistency updates, none were as notable as those mentioned above and they did almost nothing for their competitive viability. A list of all the movepool changes can be found in the table below:
Updates succeeded in making CAP's suite of Pokémon much more accurate to the modern-day creations of Game Freak. These changes to the CAPs fulfilled the role of bringing them up to date for Gen VII.
The CAP metagame has become much more diverse as well, as new sets and threats were introduced and old metagame titans were weakened, letting Pokémon that struggled with them see light once again.
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